Changing society

Don’t you remember? A few years ago Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was trying to convince his critics and naturally the Turkish people that over the years he has “changed and developed” from a radical Islamist follower with a “Nationalist View” into a democrat-conservative politician.

As conditions change, societies “change and develop” as well. A Croat friend was telling me the other night that they have a saying: “In debt like a Greek; poor like an Albanian and smoking like a Turk.” Since Greece joined the European Union, it not only improved its democracy and resolved the issue of the perennial oppression of ethnic Turkish or Muslim minorities but also developed its economy and consequently the per capita income. The “In debt like a Greek” part of the Croat saying has become irrelevant.

Similarly, since the collapse of Communism and the replacement of the Albania regime with a relatively democratic government anchored to the West, remarkable progress has been made in Albania. Thus, the “poor like an Albanian” part of the saying has become largely irrelevant today, too.

Over the past several years but particularly since last July 19 when the so-called “clean atmosphere” law mercilessly entered into force and barred Turks, and other people visiting Turkey, from enjoying a puff after a nice meal or at a café or lobby of a hotel the “smoking like a Turk” section of the Croat saying, and similar sayings throughout the world have become totally irrelevant to Turks, as well.

In fact, the saying should be changed to “Suffering like a smoking Turk." Recently, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu was in Syria for a landmark official visit. Journalists accompanying the minister were shocked to see Turkish diplomats — apparently so accustomed to the present-day non-smoking law in Turkey — smoking outside the hotel, while the Syrian diplomats smoked in the lobby. There is no such ban in Syria.

Until recently, the Turkish people have viewed the military in Turkey with confidence — polls have always indicated the Armed Forces as the most trusted institution — and somehow believed that if Turkey faced a serious communist, separatist or radical Islamist challenge, the army would be ready to salvage the secular, democratic Republic. Indeed, the perception of the military began in 1960 when the military “salvaged” the endangered Kemalist Republic many times through full-fledged coups, or what some called “post-modern” interventions similar to the e-memorandum of April 27, 2007.

“On the road to EU membership” Turkish society has also “changed and developed,” becoming a far more democratic society compared to the past when it started using the slogan: “The worst civilian government is far better than any interim government or junta rule” while the military repeated loudly its commitment to democracy. On the other hand, the country, particularly over the past few years, started a process that appears to rearrange Turkish governance along the wishes and designs of a U.S.-based Islamist brotherhood organization thereby reorienting the country from West to East.

Perhaps, the changing and developing Turkey may soon become the first-ever “Islamist democracy” in the world in conformity with the “by the people, for the people” principle that represents the overwhelming Muslim and Sunni Turks majority, which thereby shapes the governance of the country rather than the universal principles of democracy.

Interesting enough, this process plunged people into a confusion of terminologies. For example, a group of separatist terrorists clad in “uniforms” of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, can be welcomed by the state and released by a special court established at the border gate despite not repenting, but on the contrary permitted to say they are in Turkey as “emissaries of peace.” Furthermore, still in “uniform,” they are allowed to address demonstrators from the rooftop of a “campaign bus” of a legitimate political party, while the parents of fallen soldiers are prohibited from entering Parliament grounds because they had Turkish flag in their hands. Or, while the government is granting such undeclared amnesty to the terrorists in the mountains, academics, journalists, intellectuals of the society are on the other hand being accused of ties to a terrorist gang.

What is what is indeed changing in this society?